In today's age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a business may be tempted to take the "more convenient" route in launching a website ? buying a template and customising it.

Website design templates are like off-the-shelf websites and are targeted at people who believe that launching their own, unique and differentiated website is costly and time consuming, which need not be the case.

But what happens when you buy a template, and when looking up your competition on the web, you find that they are using the same template as you! A good example of this happening is the highly competitive real estate business ? I have personally discovered 6 (six) South African real estate businesses using the same design template for their website.

Using the example of the real estate business, let's imagine a guy called Adam wants to look for a new home by looking at several websites.

After browsing a few sites it occurs to Adam that the interface of some of the sites was the same, although the colour scheme may have been different. After looking at, say six different web sites, he's decided that he is highly interested in one particular home.

However, poor Adam is at a loss ? he can't remember which real estate company was offering this home! The layout and navigation structure of all the websites are the same and all the websites feature homes for sale in the same format.

None of these real estate businesses benefited from Adams interest in buying a new home ? they simply wasted his time and made him feel frustrated. On the bright side, at least Adam won't remember which real estate businesses made him feel this way!

John Simms is an Internet Marketer for Eiledon Solutions, a website development & design company in Cape Town, South Africa. Visit the website for more info.